Multi-prong approach pulls together staff and volunteers to serve those hardest hit.

As soon as Hurricane Sandy hit the New York area, Catholic Charities volunteers and case workers took action.  Timothy Cardinal Dolan and Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, Executive Director of Catholic Charities New York, offered the agency’s help at an emergency shelter for hurricane victims at John Jay College and spoke with survivors on Staten Island.  Msgr. Sullivan participated with Governor Andrew Cuomo in distributing emergency food at the New York City Armory on Saturday.

Catholic Charities mobilized staff this past weekend and coordinated with 136 volunteers to reach out to people whose homes were flooded and livelihoods ruined in Staten Island’s Midland Beach.  It  served meals on Sunday for hungry New Yorkers  at Cardinal Spellman Center in Lower Manhattan.  Case managers hand-delivered disaster relief information including safety tips and shelter lists and provided support to individuals, parishes and communities, non Catholics and Catholics alike, throughout Staten Island, Lower Manhattan and Westchester County and communities without electricity.  This included Holy Rosary Parish in the South Beach section of Staten Island, an area particularly hard hit by the hurricane.

The Catholic Charities agencies in conjunction with the entire Archdiocese of New York is working closely with FEMA and other first responders to maximize resources available to those hit hard by the storm. The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin (MIV) Center is open as a disaster relief center effective Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

“Catholic Charities has been in the forefront of helping the disaster victims,” said Executive Director of Catholic Charities Monsignor Kevin Sullivan.  “Our workers, trained in disaster response, are prepared to meet the human needs such disasters cause.”